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16 


?, 


\U(I 


rilOU  SHALT  NOT  COMMIT  ADULTERY!" 

KXOOrS,  Clinpttr  'iO,  Virso   M. 


•''JMlor  SHALT  NOT  BEAR  FALSE  WITNESS  A0A1X8T 
THY  NEIGHBOR  !" 

KXOOrS,  Chnptrr  aO,  V«rse  10. 


I 


3- 


A'J   Ph'ESENT  SAILING  UNDEIi  THE  BOGUS  NAME 

01  Widow  (?)  Stetefelt, 


Extracts  from  an  article  in  the  "St.  Louis  Volksstimme  de.s 
Westens,"  showing  the  ways  and  means 

A  LUSTFUL  AND  DEGRADED  WOMAN 

Is  able  to  resort  to  in  order  to  accomplish  her 

FRIVOLOUS  PURPOSES. 


>mii^;Biaa^, 


1880. 


a 

■2,' 


17 '^   /' 


The  following  is  a  true  picture  of  life,  ll  shows  such  an  ex- 
cess, of  female  depravily  and  sm-b  coldMouded  sconndrelisui  of  a 
purse-proud  upstart,  shrinking  at  no  means  to  hush  up  his  sister's 
intiuny,  that  it  becomes  necessary  to  expose  on  public  pillory,  by 
this  pamphlet,  the  malefactors  who  seem  to  stand  outside  the  pah- 
of  human  Ju.^tice. 

Mr.  H.  von  Wertliern,  a  well  knowu  and  much  respected  mem- 
ber of  this  community,  married  in  May  1871  the  then  widow  Mary 
Stetefelt,  mother  of  three  ungrowu  children  and  owner  of  the  small 
house  in  the  sixth  district,  she  then  was  living  in. 

For  about  six  years  the  married  couple  had  lived  comparativelv 
contented  together,  when  there  came  a  sad  change.  But  to  under- 
stand better  the  later  events  it  is  necessary  to  relate  an  occurance 
which  happened  in  187(3. 

A  certain  Mr.  Gerard  owed  to  Mr.  H.  von  Werthern  the  sum 
of  $5,58  salary,  for  which  he  [Gr.]  was  in  arrears.  Having  been  urged 
for  payment  several  times,  he  tinalfy,  in  February  1S7G,  handed  lo 
Mr.  von  Werthern  a  very  doubtful  note  for  S-jO,  with  50  0/0  discount, 
as  payment  on  account.  After  much  trouble  and  loss  of  time,  Mr. 
von  Werthern  collected  the  note  and  credited  Mr,  Gerard  with  $25. 
The  Utter  afterwards  called  on  Mr.  von  Werthern  and  demanded 
those  $25.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  this  conduct  exasper- 
ated him  and  that  when  Mr.  Gerard  grew  impudent,  he  threw  bim 
out  of  doors.  To  revenge  himself,  Mr.  Gerard  swore  to  an  affidavit 
agidnst  him  for  embezzlement.  In  absence  of  the  main  witnesses 
for  the  defence,  Mr.  von  Werthern  was  forced  to  trial  and  pronounced 
"guilty"  by  a  beastly  stupid  and  corrupt  jury,  and  sentenced  to  one 
years'  confinement  in  the  State  prison. 

One  of  these  jurymen — Mr.  Fred.  Bartels — afterwards  declared, 
unsolicited,  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  that  he  had  considered  Mr. 
von  Werthern  "not  guilty"  of  the  crime  accused  of,  but  that  he  had 
yealded  to  the  dictate  of  the  foreman  of  that  jury  who,  right  or 
wrong,  was  determined  on  having  Mr.  von  Werthern  condemned ; 

,567180  : 


_-   4  — 

thcit  he  was  soriT   for  it,  etc,     [Other  n  emh^rs  of  that  jury  have 
made  similar  expressions.—  | 

The  friemls  of  Mr.  von  Werlhern  laid  the  case,  with  nnimpeach- 
ahle  proofs  of  his  innocence,  before  Governor  Kellogg,  but  as  the 
hitter  coukl  not  grant  a  full  pardon,  the  Senate  then  n(>t  being  in 
session,  he  changed  the  sentence  to  ten  days  eonlinement  in  the 
Parish  prison  which  having  already  expired,  'Sir.  von  Werthern  wasi 
released. 

Shortly  afterwards  Mr.  Gerard's  perjurious  tongue  was  para- 
lyzed by  palsy,  and  four  or  five  months  later  a  second  paralytic  stroke 
ended  his  earthly  carreer.  About  this  time  Mr.  von  Werthern's 
wife  showed  signs  of  a  material  change  in  her  condwct.  She  man- 
ifested a  rude,  overbearing  and  quanelsome  disposition  towards  her 
husband,  attended,  without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  pic-uics,  fairs^ 
exhibitions,  moon-light  excursions,  anl  even  strolled  to  the  Fire  En- 
gine houses  of  Jeiferson  City  in  search  of  pleasure,  while  her  hus- 
band had  to  stay  at  home  and  take  care  of  the  house.  He  had  to 
rise  and  open  the  street-door  for  her,  when,  after  midnight  or  near 
break  of  day,  she  returned  home  from  her  pleasure  trips  ;  and  to 
avoid  insult  be  did  not  dare  to  utter  a  word  of  reproach  or  discontent. 

Benign  and  noble  as  the  tr.utsof  character  of  a  vhiitous  won)an 
present  themselves,  yet  a  vkhus  woman,  onee  on  her  downward 
course,  knows  no.  limit  to  her  d.^pravity. 

Mrs.  von  Werthern,  alias  widow  Stetefelt,  aUas  Mary  Roder, 
grew  bolder  by  the  forbearing  indulgence  of  her  husband.  She  open- 
ly boasted  to  some  of  her  lady  friends  that  besides  her  husband  she 
had  six  paramours,  and  that  she  wantetl  ''to  get  rid  of  lier  husband 
and  replace  him  hy  a  ymmg  and  active  man.^ 

She  gradually  grew  so  voi.l  of  shame  that  slie  openty  received 
her  lovers  in  her  husband's  presence,  until  finally  he  accepted  a  situa- 
tion that  kept  him  temporarily  away  from  home.  Before  leaving 
home  he  told  her,  in  presence  of  witnesses,  where  he  went  to  and  for 
what  purpose,  and  that  he  would  return,,  occasionally,  whenever  his 
time  would  allow  it. 


On  September  29,  1877  he  left  home  and  on  October  G,  18V7 
his  wife  brought  a  suit  for  divorce  against  him,  stating  hi  her  petition 
that  he  had  left  her  already  for  severnJ  months  [while,  really,  he  had 
been  absent  but  seven  days,  from  September  29,  to  October  G,]  and 
had  abandoned  her  entirely,  that  he  had  ill-treated  her  and  been  con- 
victed and  sentenced  to  an  infamous  [)'au:shment,  etc.  She  had  ex- 
pected that  he  would  not  answer  her  petition  and  that  she  might 
obtain  against  him  a  judgement  by  default.  But,  although  under 
those  circumstances  a  f^eparation  from^lier  ought  to  have  been  desir- 
able to  him,  yet  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  defend  himself  as  the  ac. 
cusations  concerLing  his  conduct  towards  her,  were  utterly  false, 
and  because  of  his  unjust  conviction,  lie  answered  her  petition  ac- 
cordingly, but  she,  conceiving  that  she  had  no  ''legal"  cflisfl  fur  a 
divorce,  determined  to  manufacture  one  h[i  putting  up  a  job  by  which 
to  reach  the  desired  end.  With  the  assistance  of  her  moiher  and 
that  of  policeman  Rapp — one  of  her  paramours — she  carried  out,  on 
the  evening  of  October  31,  1877,  the  infernal  plot  she  had  concocted. 

AVhen  on  that  evening  Mr.  vu.j- Werthern  after  one  umnth's 
labor  had  received  the  wages  he  had  earned  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow, 
and  repaired  home  to  offer  to  his  wife  the  means  for  her  and  her  child- 
ren's support,  he  was  received  by  her  in  a  most  provoking,  abusive 
and  brutal  manner.  He  turned  back,  intending  to  go  away  again,  but 
that  would  have  crossed  her  plans.  As  preconcerted,  the  moment  he 
approached  she  dispatched  her  daughter  Mary  Stetefelt  to  the  police 
station,  while  she  detainee^  him  until  the  expected  and  pre-arranged 
arrival  from  the  station  of  her  paramour — policeman  "Rapp." 

Therefore,  she  changed  her  tactics  and  coaxed  him  to  stay  and 
sit  down,  as  she  wanted  to  have  a  sf[uare  talk  with  him.  This  ho 
did,  conversing  about  indifferent  matters  until  she,  thinking  the  time 
for  her  lover  approach  to  have  arrived,  abused  him  again,  and  when 
once  more  he  attempted  to  leave,  she  like  a  fury  suddenly  seized  him 
by  the  collar  of  his  coat  and  shouted  Justily  :  "Murder!  Police! 
Watch  !" 

•    This  was  the  cue  for  her  mother  to  appear  suddenly  on  the  stage, 
coming  from  the  adjoining    room,  armed  with  a  poker.     With  this 


—  G  — 

weapon  .she  unmercifully  belabored  bcr  son-in-law  while  his  wife  held 
him  with  a  firm  clutch,  shouting  all  the  while:  ''Police  !  Murder!'' 
In  her  impatience  this  female  fiend  had  commeficed  too  soon,  the 
police  had  not  arrived  yet,  and  Mr.  von  Werlhern  ^ccceded  finally 
in  wresting  the  poker  from  the  old  fury's  hands  and  threw  it  through 
the  door,  whereupon  that  she-tiger  seized  a  large  carving-lcnije  and 
extingHlshcd  ihe  light.  Again  Mr.  von  Werthern  felt  the  clutches  of 
his  wife  on  him,  but  by  a  sudden  jerk  he  freed  himself  from  her  and 
thus  succeeded  in  making  his  escape  from  death  by  the  hands  of  his 
mother-in-law.  He  went  at  once  to  the  police  stanon  applying  for 
protection,  but  instead  of  finding  that,  he  was  arrested  by  those  police 
mffians  acting  in  concert  with  those  degraded  women. 

On|ibe  day  following,  November  1st,  his  wife  falsely  swore  to 
an  affidavit,  charging  him  with  ''assault  and  battery  with  attempt  to 
kill."  [On  that  very  same  day  she  and  her  like-wise  perjured  mother 
— good  and  pious  Catholics  that  they  were — bad  gone  to  confession, 
and  on  tbe  day  after  went  to  communion.] 

This  affidavit  w\ns  then  also,  in  form  of  a  supplementary  petition, 
added  to  her  original  petition  tor  divorce. 

This  diabolic  plan  was  so  well  carried  through  that  it  was  al- 
most sure  of  success.  But  even  the  most  cunning  criminals  often 
overlook  a  trifle  by  which  they  are  detected  finally.  So  it  proved  to 
be  in  this  instance. .  The  plotting  woman  forgot  to  close  the  outside 
shutters,  and  it  being  night  and  light  burning  inside,  there  were 
witnesses  who  had  observed  th«  whole  fracas  from  the  outside. 

Great  was  therefore  her  consternation  when  [on  February  1  and 
5,  1878]  her  divorce  case  was  being  tried,  and  those  witnesses,  unim- 
peachable for  their  veracity,  gave  their  testimony.  Moreover,  she 
had  stated  in  her  affidavit  that  her  husband  had  attempted  to  throw 
her  into  the  well.  She  had  boasted  of  it,  on  that  very  first  of  No- 
vember, to  a  lady  friend,  whe  i  the  latter  reminded  her  that  nobody 
would  believe  it,  as  the  well  "was  covered  with  planks  nailed  to  the 
box.  Nothing  daunted,  that  criminal  woman  fore  off  a  few  planks  so 
as  to  give  a  show  to  her  tale.  This  so  much  disgusted  that  lady  thai 
she  likewise  appeared  as  awiiness.  Already  steeped  in  perjury,  the 
woman  swore  that  she  could  not  have  said  such  a  thing  to  that  lady 


as  she  had  not  even  seen  her  on  that  very  day,  when — lo  !  four  other 
unimpeachable  witnesses  appeared,  who  stated  under  oath  that  ihey 
had  noticed  her  on  that  particular  morning  [it  being  All  Saints  Day] 
luiving  haU  an  hour's  conversation  with  that  lady. 

The  miserable  wife  was  proven  perjurious  on  the  whole  line  and 
Judge  Pardee  dismissed  the  case  with  horror  and  disgust  at  such 
depravity  and  condemned  her  to  the  costs. 

Under  such  circumstmces  no  reconciliation  was  possible,  and  i)n 
^Tay  1S78  Mr.  von  Werthern  tiled  a  petition  for  divon^f,  charging 
his  wife  with  a  too  close  intimacy  with  the  priest  of  her  church,  with 
adultery,  visiting  houses  of  assignation,  living  in  open  concubinate 
with  other  men,  etc.,  and  the  trial  was  taxed  for  June  28,  1878. 

And  now  Mr.  Frank  Roder — alias  Franz  Roeder,  the  %ell-to- 
do  wholesale  wine  and  liquor  merchant — enters  the  scene.  Being 
the  brother  of  that  miserable  wife,  and  fearing  the  disgrace  the  ex- 
posure of  that  suit  would  bring  on  the  "highl!/  respectable"  Roder's 
family,  he  preferred  the  ruin  of  an  innocent  man. 

Being  well  aware  of  the  nature  of  that  unjust  sentence  ia  187G, 
he  had  ^Ir.  von  AVerthern  re-arrested  un'der  the  plea  that  Governor 
Kellogg's  pardon  never  had  been  confirmed  by  the  Senate  and  that, 
therefore,  Mr.  von  Werthern  should  serve  out  his  original  sentence 
of  one  year's  confinement  in  the  State  prison.  ^ 

While  the  latter  was  in  the  Parish  prison,  Mr,  Frank  Roder  sent 
to  him  the  "notorious  ex-Recorder  Henry  Heidexhain,  with  the 
proposition  to  have  him  released  if  he  would  withdraw  his  divorce 
suit.  To  this  Mr.  von  Werthern  finally  consented  and  wrote  to 
Judge  Pardee  to  that  effect.  This  was  all  the  ''high  respectable'' 
Roder  family  wanted.  Once  the  divorce  suit  withdrawn,  Mr.  von 
Werthern  was  no  more  to  be  feared,  and  with  diabolic  treachery  they 
concluded  to  annihilate  him.  On  the  following  day  Mr.  Frank 
Roder  demanded  through  his  mouthpiece  —  the  notorious  Henry 
Heidenhain  —  new  and  such  degrading  conditions  that  Mr.  von 
Werthern  refused  to  entertain  them.  The  unjust  sentence,  after  an 
elapse  of  two  years,  and  after  it  had  been  changed  by  the  former 
Governor  was  carried  into  execution. 

The   "highly  respectable"  Mr.   Frank  Roder,   after  having   ex- 


—  8  — 

tracted  from  hi.s  brother-in-law,  uudcr  false  prelcncc,  the  withdrawal 
of  his  divorce  suit,  then  left  hiai  mercilessly  to  his  fate. 

The  case  was  finally  brought  to  the  notice  of  Governor  Nicholls, 
who  rendered  a  full  pardon  which  the  Senate  in  session  unanmousJ// 
confirmed.  The  Governor  afterward  expn  ssed  t'">  Mr.  von  Werthern 
bis  extreme  regret  that  the  inflexible  law  had  not  permitted  him  tu 
give  the  pardon  before  the  Senate  was  in  session. 

,  As  a  further  vindication  of  Mr.  von  AVerthern,  the  remarks  of 
two  of  our  Senators,  made  irir-tbe  open  session  of  the  Senate,  in  Jan- 
uary 21,  1879,  may  be  cited  here. 

Senator  Kexker,  in  speaking  against  the  ''vagrant  law,"  saii  : 

"As  an  evidence  to  what  extremes  the  law  can  go,  1  would  refer 
to  the  (^se  of  II.  von  Wen  hern,  whose  pardon  has  been  confirmed 
within  1  he  past  hour .  .  .Yon  Werl hern  bad  worked  industriously, 
and  faithfully  served  his  employer,  That  employer  had  not  paid 
him  his  just  salary  for  many  long  months,  until  the  employer  owed 
von  Werl  hern  six  hundred  dollars.  Afrer  pressing  the  employer  re- 
peatedly for  the  amount  due  him,  the  latter  at  length  gave  him  a 
check  for  fifty  dollars,  tellingi'bim  to  retain  twenty-live  dollars  and 
return  the  other  twenty  five.  Von  Werthern  received  ihe  whole 
amount  and  told  the  employer  that  he  [the  clerk]  could  ksep  the 
whole  and  deduct  that  amount  from  what  he  [the  employer]  owed 
him.     The  employer  then  had  von  Werthern  arrested,  etc." 

Senator  Breadx,  speaking  in  favor  of  the  ''vagrant  law,"  said  : 

"  The  case  of  von  AVerthern  was  unfortunate,  it  was  a  mis- 
iale'' 

Thus  ]\lr.  von  AA^f^rt.hern  is  entirely  rehabilitated,  his  integrit\ 
re-established,  and  his  honor  remains  unsullied. 

But  what  can  be  said  of  the  woman  who  shrinks  at  no  means  to 
rid  herself  of  her  husband,  in  order  to  satisfy  her  beastly  lust  freely 
and  without  hindrance  wiih-Ktlher  men  ! 

And  what  of  the  "  prominent  and  highly  respectable  "  merchant 
who  resorts  to  the  basest  of  means  to  suppress  the  exposure  of  tht- 
crime  of  his  sister  ? 

A  HIGHLY   RESPECTAHLK    FAillLY   THIS,   INDEED. 


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